Pregnancy Discrimination

Lawyers from the Reproductive Rights Project of the New York Civil Liberties Union are currently representing the plaintiffs in Lochren v. Suffolk County, a case involving allegations of discriminatory employment practices by a Long Island police department. The plaintiffs allege: “When five female officers became pregnant, they were unable to continue normal patrol duty due to safety concerns, yet they were inexplicably denied the desk jobs they had seen freely given to their male colleagues. As a result, the officers were essentially forced to quit working when they were still ready, willing, and able to do so.”

The matter is being discussed in some detail at the ACLU’s blog. NB: the link takes you to the blog generally; there are a number of posts about the litigation, and about other interesting cases as well. Via Julia Kite.

Update: More about pregnancy discrimination at the Workplace Prof Blog, including a link to an EEOC report that shows: “Pregnancy discrimination charge filings with the EEOC and state or local agencies nationwide have increased by 31% between fiscal years 1992 and 2005, from 3,385 to 4,449 filings. Charge Data (pre-litigation) are available [here].”